


I Will Find You Through Worlds

by ChibiSquirt, inukagome15



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Noir
Genre: Cap_Ironman Reverse Bang Challenge, Cap_Ironman Reverse Bang Challenge 2018, Epic Friendship, First Kiss, Friendship, M/M, Mystery, Period-Typical Homophobia, Reverse Big Bang Challenge, Romance, mystery with healthy side dose of mysticism, not by the characters but in general
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 02:26:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibiSquirt/pseuds/ChibiSquirt, https://archiveofourown.org/users/inukagome15/pseuds/inukagome15
Summary: This isn’t Tony’s first adventure and it won’t be his last. But this time he doesn’t have the faintest clue what he’s looking for, only it certainly isn’t what he does end up finding: An unknown man in an ice cube. Who is Steve Rogers, and why does he seem so familiar?





	I Will Find You Through Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> This is my contribution to this year's Captain America/Iron Man Reverse Bang Challenge. I had the chance to work with the wonderful [chibisquirt](http://chibisquirt.tumblr.com) and do a fill for Marvel Noir! Why is it that I only do new things for challenges?
> 
> In any case, this turned out to be as long as I expected. I have to thank chibisquirt for being a good sport when this turned out to be slightly different from what we initially discussed, although a few things remained the same from the initial ideas tossed around to the final concept. I wanted to do something different from the usual Noir fics that I've seen, so that's why this is written the way it is. (Also I have not exactly read Marvel Noir...)
> 
> Google was liberally used during the writing of this fic to fact check idioms and turns of phrases, although some were unable to be pinpointed so that might not be entirely accurate. Everything else is kind of hand-waved and can be put down to "comics!" [Sineala](http://sineala.tumblr.com), who has written a few different Noir fics (which are all great and you should read all the works NOW), was helpful when I went asking about where to get info from.
> 
> chibisquirt's fantastic art can be found here: <https://chibisquirt.tumblr.com/post/174296383407/this-is-my-art-from-the-cap-im-reverse-big-bang>
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

There was something in the mountains.

And he was here to find it.

Tony Stark, inventor, millionaire, businessman, adventurer, adrenaline-junkie (as some people would insist), war veteran, world-renowned traveler, hero of  _Marvels_  magazine, and the man known worldwide over as Iron Man, had seen a great deal of things that most people could never even dream of. And some things that people did.

All in a quest to try and find a way to keep his heart working beyond the mechanics of what he had in his chest. He’d been unsuccessful so far and had to put his search on temporary hold during World War II with Fury calling him in to help serve the country in the name of justice, spying, and sabotaging the other side, but the war was over now. Which left him free to continue his search and hope that his heart didn’t give out in the meantime.

There had been plenty of times where he’d thought he was a goner – before and during the war – and there would come the time where he really  _would_  be a goner and nothing anyone did would help. Jarvis wouldn’t be able to come up with a miracle to shock his heart back to life and Rhodey wouldn’t be there to help him limp back to a charging port.

And dear old Pepper… Well, she’d be out of a source to help write the adventures that kept  _Marvels_  magazine’s readers interested, although she’d been recycling old stories and fudging some of his war adventures to keep the magazine going during the war years.

In any case, Tony was hot on the trail of something that might be a solution to his ever present heart troubles. The stories were sketchy on what it was, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. And Tony was definitely getting desperate at this point.

Nepal wasn’t a country he’d been in before, but then Tony hadn’t been to every place on Earth yet. He’d seen a lot, but he hadn’t seen  _everything_. Granted, sometimes it seemed like he did with all the shit that happened every time he went to try and find something to heal his heart.

Supposedly dead father actually being alive and brainwashed into being the leader of an evil organization made up of Nazis? Yeah, that seemed like a horror story for kids but was a fact of Tony’s life.

Ten mystical rings that each did something whacky and ridiculous but all added up to something that no sane man would go up against? (Tony would say he was sane; his friends begged to differ given the hijinks he got into.) That also seemed like a cool story told to kids at bedtime but was another fact of life for Tony that he wished had never happened.

Ex-lovers turned evil that kept wanting to kill Tony? …That story actually wasn’t entirely implausible, even if Tony got sick of people he thought he’d known stabbing him in the back.

Yeah, he didn’t have the best track record with lovers. At this point Tony had given up and was just trying to make it to the next year before his heart gave out. He’d try and find someone after that if there was any chance.

Tony preferred being optimistic, but even he was slowly running out of optimism with every dead end he ran into.

This was one of those times where he was stretching, hoping that there’d be something here but more of the opinion that there’d be nothing but a cool artifact that would make a nice story for the magazine. And maybe the artifact would be one for the museums or one that should be left in a dark hole where no one would ever find it again.

There’d been a few of those. Tony always regretted having to be the one to find them and then make that decision.

It was likely this wouldn’t be one of those. There were no obvious red flags in the area, and Tony wasn’t even going to be taking his suit like he did during his most dangerous escapades. It was too clunky and unwieldy to take when he went exploring (now if it was more streamlined, easier to put on, and not as likely to bring the cave ceiling down on his head…).

Rhodey would be accompanying him; Jarvis would stay behind, keeping an eye on their supplies and the Iron Man suit. It was just like so many of their other adventures, and Tony was so damn glad that the war was over and he no longer had to deal with the sound of machine fire, the metallic smell of blood, and the screams of the dying and injured.

War was many things, but it definitely wasn’t pretty. Once upon a time Tony’s heart would’ve kept him out of the danger but as Iron Man he hadn’t the luxury. Or at least Fury hadn’t cared about small details like that.

Regardless, this tiny village in Nepal was the opposite of the war front. It was so small that it didn’t even show up on any maps. The mountains had lot of those villages, but it was this one that Tony was interested in because of its proximity to what he was looking for.

It was remote, rural, and absolutely gorgeous if one went for that sort of thing. Even Tony, who liked all the amenities of civilization and the ability to charge his heart without having to go scavenging for batteries to mooch off of, could enjoy it. It was cold, but the kind of cold that made one take a deep breath and appreciate life.

Nighttime would be a different story, but Tony had the supplies needed to make it through without freezing his ass off. And if he forgot anything, Rhodey would have remembered it. His best friend was neat like that.

The village was also…

“I feel like I’ll see a ghost waving at me if I look over my shoulder,” Rhodey said as they walked through the village and back to their campsite.

Tony didn’t say anything beyond humming slightly in acknowledgement. The back of his neck prickled uncomfortably, but there was nothing unusual here. Even if he did sometimes feel like there were eyes in the shadows.

“Maybe it wants to say hi,” Tony said eventually.

“Ha.” Rhodey scratched the side of his neck, looking to the side. “Seriously. There’s something off about this place.”

“That’ll go over wonderfully with our readers,” Tony said dryly. “‘There was something creepy in the village, so our intrepid adventurers decided to hoof it. The End.’”

 “Pepper could swing something with that,” Rhodey said, grinning.

“After ripping us new ones, sure.” Tony exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck as his skin continued to prickle uncomfortably. “This isn’t the first time we’ve done this, Rhodey.”

“No, but…” Rhodey made a face, glancing back in the direction they had come from after playing an intricate game of charades and “do you understand this?” with the locals. “We don’t know anything about we’re going into. Usually there’s more to the myths and legends we’re looking into but this? We’ve got the barest hint that there might be something here from an old story from a guy who went crazy from living in the mountains.”

“A story’s a story,” Tony said, even if he shared those exact doubts.

“Tony.”

“What do you expect, Rhodey?” Tony barely kept from snapping, resisting the urge to rub a hand over the glass case protecting his heart and keeping it ticking. “I’m running out of options here. This might be nothing, but it might also be something. It doesn’t hurt to try.”

“Normally that’d be true, but in this case I’m going to call foul,” Rhodey said. “You’re stuck relying on what we brought to keep your heart going. There’s nothing out here for you to jury rig if something goes wrong.”

“I’m not going to be wearing the suit out here,” Tony said. “The most strenuous thing I’ll be doing is some rock climbing. It’ll be fine.”

The look Rhodey shot him clearly said that now things  _wouldn’t_  be fine but Tony ignored it (after all the times Rhodey had given him that look, Tony had it down to an art form).

Sure, Tony wasn’t the best at not pushing himself, even if he knew exactly how much he  _could_  take. He just…always seemed to be able to exceed that and then end up at the brink of death, only to come back through some miracle or another.

Life wasn’t ready to let him go just yet. Which was great, since Tony wasn’t ready to let it go either. Not now.

At any rate, his heart was fully charged and he’d make sure it stayed that way before heading off on that hike they had planned.

They hadn’t gotten that much information from the locals. They didn’t speak English and the local dialect wasn’t one that Tony or Rhodey were familiar with. What they did manage to cribble together from pantomiming and showing pictures of the guy that had gone “crazy” in the mountains was vague and didn’t tell them what they were looking for.

But there was something in the mountains.

Tony wasn’t psychic, hated anything and everything to do with magic because  _what_  even  _was_  that, but he knew there were people with extra abilities. He just wasn’t one of them.

So why did he feel like there was something in the mountains here? A nagging, prickling feeling at the back of his neck, at the back of his mind, poking and prodding him even though there was nothing there for him to see.

Rhodey was right. It was like there was a ghost behind him trying to say hi.

And the shadows were watching, even if Tony hadn’t come across any legends about the shadows eating people alive here. (Or ever, but he’d been in the game too long to dismiss the possibility entirely.)

There was something in the mountains, and Tony was going to find it come hell or high water.

* * *

The Himalayan Mountains were old.

Okay, well, one could say that about all mountain ranges (and the Earth in general if one were to get technical), but these were different. There was something mystical about them, a kind of gravitas and presence that other mountain ranges didn’t seem to possess.

Sure, Europe and the Americas had its fair share of mountain ranges, but they were tame in comparison to the Himalayas.

These were unforgiving peaks, covered with white snow, with a geography that wasn’t yet entirely charted. Villages dotted the foothills of the mountain range, but it wasn’t like the locals knew the ins and outs of the Himalayas either.

The foothills were a different matter, as they hadn’t had any luck finding a local to guide them. The language barrier surprisingly wasn’t the issue there. It was that no one seemed to want to go with them.

This wasn’t a first for Tony, but normally he had a little more to go on when it came to what he was looking for. Here he was literally navigating blind, with only an eerie feeling that kept prodding him to look over his shoulder for the ghost saying hi.

Rhodey didn’t look any happier, and Jarvis looked the least happy of all of them, eyeing Tony’s chest worriedly. Considering Jarvis, this meant he was scowling heavily while double-checking their supplies.

They camped in the shadows of the Himalayas, the night air forbiddingly cold.

Contrary to what most people thought when they pictured mountains, it wasn’t like there were flatlands one moment and then – bam – mountains the next moment. There was always a gradual adjustment, sloping hills, some not-so-sloping hills, and mountain peaks in the distance.

The Himalayas were an imposing sight looming over the village, but the village wasn’t nested at the base of the range. Some villages did that, houses built practically on the slopes of ridiculously steep hills that made Tony’s calves ache to think about all the walking the inhabitants had to do. This one didn’t, although there was a dirt path meandering into the foothills.

In lieu of anything better, Tony and Rhodey started out on that the next morning. Bright, early, and still rather bitterly cold. The sun hadn’t yet had a chance to warm the air, and their breath fogged the air.

Tony’s heart was still at full charge. Unless something terribly drastic happened, he should be good for the next week. He wasn’t planning on being out here for a week.

But the best laid plans of mice and men…

Well, that was why he had Rhodey.

And his own wits. He wasn’t helpless, just occasionally handicapped.

“We have no idea where we’re going, do we,” Rhodey said about an hour into their hike. “Are we just going to keep following this path?”

Tony didn’t answer immediately, taking a moment to pause and look back to where they had come from. The village was out of sight, and they were surrounded by mostly rocks and the occasional scraggly tree that was just that determined to survive.

“Tony?”

Letting out a slow exhale, Tony turned his head back to Rhodey. “You know how it is, Rhodey. The further we’re from civilization, the better the chances we find something.”

“Hate to break it to you, Tony, but following a path made by  _humans_  isn’t exactly far away from civilization.”

Tony raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the bleak but beautiful landscape around them. “I don’t fancy getting lost. I’m an adventurer, not some maniac with a death wish.”

“Oh, really?” Rhodey sounded far too amused for his own good. “Could’ve fooled me.”

Tony went to shove at him, but Rhodey jumped ahead, laughing, so he almost tripped over a loose rock. Stumbling, he regained his balance and straightened his thick jacket. “We stick to the path for now,” he said, trying for a serious tone and probably failing judging from how amused Rhodey still looked.

“Does that mean we’re eventually going to court your supposedly nonexistent death wish?” Rhodey asked.

Tony shook his head, not even bothering to justify that with an answer. (Especially since he didn’t exactly have one.)

He took the lead, Rhodey falling in behind him. Keeping to the path made walking easier than if they’d gone elsewhere, since at least human feet had gone this way before. Even if it was rocky, occasionally slippery, and almost twisted their ankles at certain points.

Mountain climbing was neither of their fortes. Tony usually went for jungles (and caves; caves seemed to be a staple of his career).

Eventually, however, even the faint path they were following trailed off into nothing, and it was up to Tony to figure out where to go. He hesitated briefly before continuing on, striking a path that gradually led them upwards deeper into the mountains.

He couldn’t quite tell how he knew where to go, but something in his gut told him this was the right way. It wasn’t anything that would fly with Rhodey, but a guess was a guess and they didn’t have anything better to go off of.

There was something  _here_. It felt like it was pressing down on his shoulders, and the prickling at the back of his neck was constant now.

Tony slept badly that night, feeling like he was missing something that was at the tip of his tongue. Or at his fingers if he reached out and stretched far enough to grab it (there was nothing to grab, was there?).

The next morning was colder than it had been by the village, and they covered their tracks before setting off. They’d been followed too many times by enemies to take the chance that someone might be following them again and would run across their campsite.

“You know where we’re going?” Rhodey asked, wiping a hand over his mouth with a loud exhalation.

“I…” Tony looked up at the looming mountains, one hand pressing against the repulsor plate covering the glass plate protecting his heart. “Yes…?”

“Why was that a question?”

“It’s…” Tony’s eyes scanned the craggy rocks not far from their current location. “It’s not far,” he found himself saying.

“Okaaayyy.” Rhodey drew the word out, eyeing Tony worriedly. “You know that how?”

Tony rubbed the back of his neck, wishing the prickling would go away. “A little ghost told me.”

Rhodey seemed unsettled, frowning slightly, but let it rest. “That’s…not so unreasonable. Okay.”

Rather confused at the easy acceptance, Tony shot Rhodey one last look before returning his attention to where he should place his feet. They needed to get higher still, and he wasn’t sure he could do it with a heavy backpack strapped on.

Well, it wasn’t like they could camp on a vertical incline, was it?

There was what seemed to be a hole a ways up in the side of mountain they were walking on, although one would have to do some actual climbing to get there.

Tony let the backpack drop once he was close enough and pulled out some rope and their camping supplies. The latter he started stashing behind some rocks.

“I thought we weren’t going mountain climbing.” Rhodey sounded resigned.

“It’s up there,” Tony said, securing the rope to his belt. “I’m going to check that it’s clear and then you can come up with a light.” The much lighter backpack went back on. He didn’t wait for an answer before he started climbing.

“And if it’s  _not_  clear?”

Tony didn’t answer, busy focusing on his next handhold and where to place his feet. The prickling at the back of his neck was even stronger now, and he actually felt like he was swimming (climbing, really) through something strange.

The hole was three feet away now, and Tony pulled himself up, finding himself looking down into something dark. It was definitely a cave, albeit a bigger one than Tony had expected given how it had looked from below.

Tony slowly maneuvered to a more comfortable position on the ledge, making sure he wasn’t going to fall over in either direction. Then he looked back down to Rhodey, waving at him to come up.

It took Rhodey a little longer than Tony since he actually took the entire backpack with him. He left Tony’s abandoned supplies down there, although still hidden behind a pile of rocks.

“Unless an ambitious mountain goat decides to make off with them, I think it’ll be fine,” Rhodey told Tony once he made it up. “What’re we looking at?”

“A cave?” Tony shrugged, dropping his eyes to peer into the darkness that awaited them. “Pepper will probably come up with some kind of neat description, but that’s all I’ve got.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing she couldn’t come this time,” Rhodey said, sighing. “She’d have both our heads by now.”

Christ, she would. Pepper wouldn’t be at all happy with how things were progressing, for both personal and professional reasons. Readers apparently liked mystical things only to a point, and this was pushing things.  _Marvels_  wasn’t supposed to be about the supernatural.

Taking the flashlight Rhodey handed him, Tony turned it on and pointed it into the darkness to get a better idea of what they were in for. There really wasn’t much to see beyond the fact that there was indeed solid ground a good dozen feet below them. The cave went on further, but the light of the flashlight didn’t go that far.

They secured the rope to a convenient rock, and this time Rhodey – flashlight in mouth – was the one to go first, giving Tony a look that dared him to protest. He didn’t. He valued his hearing.

Once it was ascertained that there were indeed no traps waiting to ensnare them, Tony followed. The cave didn’t look any less forbidding once they were inside, the only lights that of Rhodey’s flashlight and what little came in from outside.

“I don’t even know why I bother,” Rhodey said, sighing, handing the flashlight back over. “We going forward?”

“Relax, Rhodey,” Tony murmured, sweeping the beam of the flashlight over the walls and ceiling. The tunnel went on for a while, curving to the right. “This isn’t a lost temple.”

“How do you know? Lost temples are  _lost_. It’s not like anyone knows where they are.”

“They don’t look like caves.”

“…I’ll give you that one. Maybe it’s a caveman temple?”

Tony deliberately kept his face turned away, unable to help the twitching of his lips. He moved forward, keeping his flashlight facing forward and scanning the ground for any traps that might be set off. He didn’t expect any, but he hadn’t gotten to this point in his career by ignoring everything he’d learned.

And when exploring mysterious caves, always be on the lookout for traps.

Even if they usually ended not being there because the caves were actually caves and not holding life’s mysteries.

This cave did seem like an actual cave.

Only Tony couldn’t help but keep looking over his shoulder, just to see Rhodey there and no one else. Or rubbing at his exposed skin when it prickled like he was getting goosebumps but not quite.

There was something here. Something that shouldn’t be.

Somehow, Tony suspected even  _his_  adventures hadn’t prepared him for finding this…

Whatever it would end up being.

The tunnel they were in narrowed at points and occasionally the ceiling lowered, leaving them stooped over. At one point it was so low that they ended up leaving their backpacks behind, taking only what they could strap to their persons.

But it didn’t branch off, which meant they wouldn’t get lost or have to use the chalk they had in their pockets for exactly these kinds of situations.

Tony wasn’t claustrophobic, but it was getting slightly hard to remember that with how long they’d been in here with only his flashlight for illumination. Having Rhodey here helped, but what didn’t was the squirming in his stomach or the buzzing in his ears.

“I don’t fancy camping down here,” Rhodey said once they were upright again. He rubbed ruefully at the back of his head, where he’d bumped it against a rock that had decided it wanted to ruin his day.

“We won’t,” Tony said, looking ahead. Was there another hole in the wall there? He shivered briefly, a sudden spate of cold seeming to blow past him. “I…don’t think it’s much further.”

“Uh-huh.” Rhodey touched his shoulder, grip reassuringly steady. “Your weird feelings tell you that?”

Of course Rhodey had noticed. Tony didn’t know why he’d expected anything different.

“Something like that,” Tony settled on saying, flashing Rhodey a small smile. “Come on.”

He rested a hand against the wall, the cold seeping through his gloves. Exhaling slowly, he swore his breath fogged slightly in the dim light. But it was gone when he blinked.

Rubbing his eyes, Tony shook his head and pressed onward. Only to stop abruptly because there  _was_  a hole in the wall, and when he turned the flashlight in, there was…

Ice?

The light swept over ice and snow that covered the rocky ground and hugged the walls in patches. It was sparse to the edges of the cavernous room, but piled up more vigorously towards the center.

His breath caught in his throat at the gleaming white star that reflected back at him.

“What the hell,” Rhodey breathed, his voice right by Tony’s ear.

It wasn’t just a star, Tony realized as he kept the light trained on it. It was surrounded by what seemed to be circles of color. It was clearly metallic, gleaming in the light in a way that the snow and ice didn’t.

Tony’s breath fogged in the air as he took an unconscious step forward, his face prickling at the abrupt change of temperature.

“Tony!” Rhodey grabbed at his arm, holding him back. “What are you doing?”

“I…” Tony blinked, the light on the star wavering as his hand dropped slightly. There was…something else in there. Something much darker than what he’d seen so far.

“You can’t just go walking in there!” Rhodey said, shaking him slightly. “We haven’t seen any traps yet, but maybe that’s because  _this_  is the trap!”

“I don’t…” Tony swallowed, pressing his free hand to his head as he struggled to think. It felt like his thoughts were swimming through molasses.

There was something in the mountains. There was something in this cave. It was right  _here_.

How?

“‘There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy,’” Tony murmured.

“Misquoting Shakespeare isn’t going to win you any points,” Rhodey said, sounding unimpressed.

The snow crunched under Tony’s foot – the one that had stepped into the room before Rhodey held him still. It was soft, like it was entirely fresh and not in the middle of a mountain cave that had taken them several hours to traverse. It was…impossible (but clearly not since it was here, so maybe just improbable? He hated magic).

Rhodey’s hand on his arm tightened, and Tony blinked again, now taking a step back into the tunnel. The cold of the room seemed to follow him, clinging to his face.

“I think it’s safe,” Tony said, sounding dazed even to his own ears.

“Say that again when you don’t sound drugged on whatever shit’s in there and I’ll believe you,” Rhodey said, studying him closely, lines of concern etched in the skin around his eyes.

“Something would’ve happened when I stepped in there,” Tony pointed out, glancing back. He turned the flashlight into the room, catching another glimpse of that strange metallic star. “Unless you want to throw a rock in there and see what happens?”

“Better a rock than you.” Rhodey leaned down, picked up a decent sized rock, and lobbed it into the room before Tony could protest.

And Rhodey claimed  _he_  had a death wish.

Absolutely nothing happened beyond the rock hitting the ground with a loud thud and skittering to a stop in the snow. They waited another five minutes, scarcely daring to breathe as they listened for anything that might be a trap going off. When all remained quiet, Tony relaxed and felt Rhodey do the same, his friend’s grip on his arm slackening.

“Okay.” Rhodey let his hand drop. “You head on in there. I’ll stay here just in case for now.”

Tony didn’t bother responding, stepping into the room with an eagerness that would probably make Rhodey regret letting Tony go first. He didn’t think this was a solution to his heart issues, but that didn’t matter.

This was utterly bizarre and new and so damn cool that Tony couldn’t help it. There was something else at work here, but it didn’t feel malevolent.

His breath still fogged the air as he continued forward, but the skin on his face wasn’t stinging as badly. Neither did his lungs as he kept breathing. It was almost as if the air was warming up…

He reached the mound of snow and ice in the center, crouching as he came close to see what the metallic star was.

A shield?

…A  _round_  shield, the star being the center point. It was surrounded by rings of red, white, and blue, exactly like the American flag. And underneath it…

Holy shit.

Oh my God, what? He had to be imagining this.

“Tony?” Rhodey called hesitantly. “You freaking out is freaking me out.”

“There’s a person here,” Tony blurted out, reaching out despite himself to touch the ice covering the legs. Cold water seeped through his gloves, and he pulled them off before he could rethink the notion, stuffing them into his pockets before touching the ice again.

It was a lot less colder than it had been moments before. Less solid, too. It was leaking water constantly now.

“A person?” Rhodey came up behind him, stopping dead once he saw what Tony had. “No way. What the hell?”

“Exactly.” Tony pulled his hand away from the ice, wiping the water off on his pants. He didn’t put the glove back on just yet, watching trickles of water run off the ice and to the ground. He turned off his flashlight, wanting to spare the battery since Rhodey had taken his own out now.

Come to think of it, the snow surrounding the ice block seemed less solid than it had minutes ago as well. It was distinctly more like a slushy frosty puddle than freshly fallen snow now.

“We’re not giving off enough heat to melt this,” Tony said slowly. “So why?”

“Are we seriously going to be debating the mechanics of magic while sitting in here?” Rhodey asked. “What about the possibly dead person in a block of ice that should  _not_  be here?”

“‘Possibly’?”

“I don’t know! The way your life goes, they might be alive!”

“They’re frozen in ice.” Even as Tony said it, he couldn’t help but think Rhodey was right. The person couldn’t be dead. Not in circumstances as unusual as this.

Rhodey clearly read this in Tony’s face. “They better not be a zombie.”

“Look at it this way,” Tony said, trying for a lighthearted tone. “If they’re a zombie, we can say we successfully adverted an apocalypse. Again.”

“If our guns don’t work, we can always just smash them with a rock.”

“There you go. Look on the bright side.”

“Bright side? What bright side? We’re in a dark cave…” Rhodey pulled a face, shifted his weight, and nearly slipped.

The frosty slush had graduated to watery slush.

The ice was still ice, but it was also looking more watery by the minute.

Definitely not natural.

Tony rubbed at his mouth with his ungloved hand. Rhodey’s flashlight was trained on the shield, illuminating it. The way it was positioned and the amount of ice still left made it difficult to make out any features of this mysterious person beyond general facts like these were their legs, torso, arms, etc.

It could be an alien for all he knew (even if something inside him highly doubted that).

Reaching out to touch the ice again, ignoring Rhodey’s disgruntled muttering, Tony noted that it still had a ways left to go before it was entirely melted. He wasn’t planning on going anywhere in the meantime, so sitting and waiting here would have to do it.

Rhodey didn’t seem to mind, pulling out the rather disgusting rations they’d packed for occasions just like this. They settled down on a relatively dry piece of rock and waited in silence, watching as the snow and ice gradually melted and didn’t seep out of the room.

It was strange, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility given all the other shit Tony had seen in his adventures. It was just…magic.

Or some kind of science Tony hadn’t yet figured out. Maybe he would someday (he could dream okay).

“Magic, man,” Rhodey said with a sigh, looking down at his half-eaten ration with a vaguely disgusted expression that somehow still suggested he was determined to finish it. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. At this point, anything that’ll fix your heart is going to be magic and not science.”

“It’ll be advanced science,” Tony said, nibbling at the edge of his ration and trying not to think about the consistency of what he was chewing. “Science we haven’t gotten to yet.”

“Sure, okay,” Rhodey said dubiously. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Tony resisted the urge to retort, instead focusing on staring at the steadily melting ice. The shield was almost out, the star already peeking out from the ice that had encased it.

Judging from the current rate, it would probably be another ten minutes before they were able to take care of whomever was in the ice.

It was morbid yet…a thrill of excitement ran down Tony’s spine.

There wasn’t much he hadn’t seen in his adventures so far, and this…this was  _new_. This was something wholly unexpected and so neat that Tony was reminded of why he’d gone into this career choice to begin with. That it wasn’t just about his heart issues that brought him back to adventuring over and over again.

Hell, he’d live a lot longer if he just put up the Iron Man suit and the gig for good. But he couldn’t do that. Besides, he didn’t want to live just a  _little_  longer. He wanted to find a solution and actually be able to  _live_ (being practically married to electricity to keep his heart pumping was not something he wanted in the long run. Longer run).

The ice around the shield melted before Tony managed to finish choking down his food, and he quickly wrapped up what remained and stuffed it into his right pocket. He was too eager to check the shield out now that it was no longer a block of ice.

Rhodey said nothing as Tony approached it, reaching out slightly unsteady fingers. The metal was cold to the touch and extremely smooth. Tony gingerly picked it up, surprised that it was at once heavier and lighter than expected. He flipped it around, noting that it didn’t quite behave like a normal shield (what – being a King Arthur fan meant knowing shields).

Looking down, Tony saw that the ice had started melting even faster, and he could now see the features of the unlucky soul who had been flash frozen. It was a man in some kind of ridiculously spangly uniform that was also red, white, and blue. There were rips and tears along the legs and one along the man’s right flank that should have drawn blood.

Tony crouched, barely aware of Rhodey coming up behind him, flashlight in hand.

The man was strikingly handsome, jawline straight, nose unbroken, skin flawless, and eyelashes long.

Tony’s heart skipped a beat, and he bit his lip, chiding himself for looking at the poor man that way.

He didn’t seem to be breathing.

The ice had retreated from the man’s head, so Tony felt relatively comfortable reaching out to tug off the mask that hid most of the man’s features from view. He was even more handsome now, and Tony could see that his hair was blond.

His skin was ice cold to the touch, and there was no way that he could be  _alive_ … Yet Tony pressed two fingers to the pulse point in his neck and waited, scarcely daring to breathe.

“Tony,” Rhodey breathed, one hand coming to rest on Tony’s shoulder.

Tony shook his head, entire focus on the sole contact he had with this mysterious man. Something seemed to pulse under his fingers.

“I think…” Tony’s tongue felt heavy, and he hesitated, unsure of whether he really had felt that.

Another pulse, followed by an interminable long wait, and then one more. The next one came faster than before.

“He’s alive,” Tony said, switching from the man’s neck to his mouth to see if he could feel him breathing. “Holy shit, he’s alive.”

“You’re kidding.”

Tony fumbled for anything reflective, remembered that he had a metallic shield, and moved to hold it to the man’s lips before remembering that the shield was freezing cold and the likelihood of anything showing up would be—

Okay, what the  _hell_. Maybe the man was an alien? A humanoid alien?

There was no way he should be warming up this fast, because his breath was definitely fogging the shield.

“Not a zombie?” Rhodey asked.

“He’s got a pulse and he’s breathing.”

Rhodey whistled lowly under his breath, then proceeded to shift his weight from foot to foot, keeping his flashlight trained on the man Tony was crouched by.

Tony set the shield aside, touching the man’s neck again just to confirm that he really did have a pulse. It didn’t take as long this time, and his pulse wasn’t as faint as before. It was also beating faster.

“This should really be happening in a hospital,” Rhodey said, coming to crouch by Tony. “But we’d never have gotten him out.”

“They’d be all over him,” Tony said. “You know that.”

“Well, we don’t know if he’s a friendly yet. Might be a reason he was down here frozen like that.”

Rhodey was right, but…Tony couldn’t help but think that was ridiculous (which was in itself a stupid notion to have because he didn’t even  _know_  this man, even though something in him said that he  _did_ ). This man couldn’t (why  _couldn’t_? He didn’t know him!) be an enemy.

“Maybe he was frozen because he got on somebody’s bad side,” Tony said. “I know there are some that would have liked to freeze me and stick me somewhere to forget about.”

“Okay, sure, but that still raises the question as to how he got  _here_. And with a shield? Who carries a shield nowadays?” Rhodey reached over to tap his fingers against said shield. “Maybe for Halloween…”

Tony didn’t answer, eyes on the shield that Rhodey had just tapped. His nails had clinked against the metal, but it hadn’t sounded normal…

Reaching out, Tony tapped his own fingers against it, deliberately drumming his nails on it. The sound rang oddly, almost like a clear ring, like no other metal Tony was familiar with.

He picked the shield up, eyeing it speculatively. It wasn’t exactly possible to study it in the dim light that Rhodey’s flashlight offered, but his fingers itched to try out a few more experiments and see what it was made of. Metal, sure, but what  _kind_  of metal? It wasn’t one that Tony had encountered before, at least not for his own personal use.

And he’d gone through the gamut of metals when updating his Iron Man armors.

There was a sharp inhalation that wasn’t from Rhodey, along with a faint groan. Tony’s head jerked from where it was bent over the shield, and he saw the man grimace, nose wrinkling.

“Jesus Christ,” Rhodey breathed. “Is he human?”

Tony moved to answer flippantly, then stopped as he considered the question more seriously. He’d thought the man might be an alien…

But it didn’t add up. His pulse points were the same as a human. He breathed the same as a human. He  _looked_  like a human…

Tony wasn’t about to cut him open to find out if he bled, but judging from the darker patches on his uniform, he would guess that was a yes. Whether it was red blood or something else wasn’t clear, but he’d opt for red.

If he was human, the man was clearly enhanced in some special way.

It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing Tony had ever encountered, even if the situation definitely was.

The man groaned again, eyes scrunching tighter. His right arm twitched, and then his eyes were flying open. He jerked upright or at least seemed to try, since he practically fell back on the ground and was staring at the two of them, wide-eyed.

“Who are you?” the man demanded, voice hoarse. “Where am I?”

“Hey, calm down.” Tony kept his voice calm and friendly, placing the shield carefully to the side. The man’s startlingly (gorgeous) blue eyes followed the movement, and his brow furrowed. “We’re friendlies.”

“We hope,” Rhodey murmured, keeping an unobtrusive stance.

The man’s breath hitched, his eyes narrowing slightly as he squinted at Tony. Then he blinked, reaching out with a trembling hand to touch Tony’s face. His fingers weren’t as cold as before, but they still made Tony shiver.

“Do I know you?” the man asked, peering closely at Tony’s face.

Tony didn’t move as the man brushed a thumb over his chin, feeling caught in the man’s blue eyes (were they azure?). “Can’t say we’ve met before,” he managed to reply flippantly. “I’m Tony Stark. This is Rhodey.”

There was no recognition from the man at Tony’s name, and his eyes flickered briefly to Rhodey before returning to Tony.

“Well, this guy calls me Rhodey,” Rhodey said, sighing. “It’s Rhodes – James Rhodes.”

“And you are?” Tony asked when the man didn’t respond. The man was still touching his face. It was getting a little strange at this point, although Tony wasn’t sure if he wanted to point it out (it wasn’t every day he was touched like this by a gorgeous man who seemed really freaking familiar).

The man blinked, frowning slightly. “I’m…” He looked down at the hand still on Tony’s face, flushed slightly, and pulled back (Tony mourning the loss instantly and then chiding himself because  _no_ ), brushing the offending hand through his hair. “Steve. Rogers.”

The name clicked into place, and Tony found himself smiling at Steve Rogers before he could rethink it. “Nice to meet you, Steve. I’d offer you a drink, but the accommodations aren’t exactly the best.”

“Where are we?” Steve asked, sitting up. He reached for the shield, pulling it to his side in a protective gesture.

Tony didn’t immediately answer, considering. “Where do you think we are?” he said instead.

“It looks like a cave,” Steve said, “but… I wasn’t in a cave before. How did I get here?”

“That’s kind of what we were hoping you could tell us,” Tony said. “Including how you were somehow frozen in a block of ice.”

Steve shuddered, eyes closing briefly. “It was so cold,” he whispered, trembles wracking his muscular frame.

Tony touched him before he realized he was reaching out, moving over to tug him into his side. He almost froze when he realized what he was doing, but Steve was moving into the embrace like he’d expected it, body shivering violently against Tony’s.

Okay… There…was still something very weird going on here.

“Do you remember what happened?” Tony asked once the shivering had subsided some. Steve didn’t pull away and Tony didn’t either (he didn’t want to look closely at why; Rhodey was already eyeing the two of them weirdly).

Steve let out a shuddering exhale. “We were fighting HYDRA,” he said quietly. “But…something went wrong. Someone else was there. And he…” He frowned. “I…I don’t know what happened after that.”

Steve fighting HYDRA meant that at least he wasn’t likely to be an enemy. Although that raised the question of whether HYDRA knew Steve was here and whether anyone would follow them in here.

Tony’s stuff was still outside and rather poorly hidden. His enemies were the persistent sort, especially since they knew he found interesting artifacts. And while Steve wasn’t an artifact, he was interesting.

“You don’t know how you came in here?” Tony asked again, just to be sure.

“I don’t.” Steve shifted, placing a hand over the torn cloth on his right side. “Was there anyone else here?” He sounded half-hopeful and half like he was expecting the answer to be no.

Tony shook his head in answer, meeting Rhodey’s eyes in the increasingly dim light of his flashlight. They would need to get out of here soon. Tony’s light was still good to go, but they hadn’t planned to spend more than a day spelunking.

At Tony’s answer, Steve dropped his chin, eyes closing. His mouth twisted in a clear picture of grief. A few seconds later his (perfect,  _seriously_  perfect) lips straightened and he pulled away from Tony entirely, exhaling loudly.

“Are we leaving?” Steve picked up the shield, not even looking at it as he set into place on his back. “Or was there another reason you’re here?”

“No, uh…” Tony eyed Steve for a moment longer before shaking his head. “That’s it.”  _He_  was it.

And there went this half-baked lead of Tony’s. He was still running out of time to fix his heart, but he found that he couldn’t regret finding Steve.

 _Why_  this was… Well, Tony could figure it out later.

Along with why Steve felt like an old friend.

First, they really should get out of this cave.

* * *

It didn’t take as long to get out as it had to get in. Steve was in remarkably good shape considering he’d been frozen in an ice block for an undetermined amount of time ( _years_ , something in Tony suggested but that was just ridiculous). He kept up with them easily, bringing up the middle with Tony in the lead and Rhodey in the back.

When they eventually reached the exit, Steve climbed up like an actual monkey and didn’t even seem breathless for it. He also started shivering the moment he was out of the cave, the cold night air cutting through his uniform like a knife.

They’d been underground for the rest of the day, and Tony’s watch told him it was past midnight. They should set up camp and warm up, try to make sure Steve really was as fine as he seemed.

He shouldn’t be. He’d been  _frozen_. How he wasn’t dead was a medical and scientific mystery that Tony would like answers to but suspected he wouldn’t get unless he was the evil cackling kind of scientist.

Which he wasn’t. He’d leave that to his brainwashed father.

Tony’s supplies were still strewn about at ground level and appeared unmolested by anyone, goat or person. He gathered them, ignoring the curious look from Steve, and then started setting up camp for that night.

As Steve was still shivering and seemed to stare vacantly into the distance, Tony immediately shoved him into the tent once it was set up. He also gave Steve the warmest blanket they had and some dried nuts and fruits. He didn’t want to give Steve anything heavier since he had no idea how long he’d been frozen for (and those terrible rations were definitely on the heavy side; at least fruits and nuts were more palatable).

Then he stood outside and proceeded to freak out. Silently.

Rhodey stood by him, recognizing all the signs. “Guess that’s another dead end, huh?”

Tony took a few more deep breaths. “I notice you’re saying nothing about the fact we found an actual human being frozen in a cube of ice in a cave in the Himalayas.”

“I thought I’d leave that for later,” Rhodey said. “I mean, I’m not sure what else I can say considering I have no idea what happened there. Only there’s something weird going on.”

“Oh, it’s not just me?”

“No, it’s just you,” Rhodey disagreed. “I’m not part of this weirdness except as a witness to you meeting a new best buddy.”

“He’s not—” Tony started to say, then cut off when he realized that it felt like a lie. And off in the distance, like a vague whisper, he heard the words  _I’m not half as good as anything as when I am doing it next to you._

Hearing voices didn’t say much for the sanity column, so Tony was just going to stay quiet on that.

“You think he’s met you before?” Rhodey asked. “He said you looked familiar.”

Tony shook his head. “At this point, who hasn’t seen me? I don’t remember meeting him, and I’d remember a face like that.”

“And body,” Rhodey noted casually, not looking at Tony.

Tony said nothing, hands in his pockets.

“What are you going to do?” Rhodey glanced back to the tent.

Tony exhaled through his teeth, whistling softly under his breath. “Figure out who he is, where he came from. Preferably how he got here but I’ll take what I can get. Keep him out of the government’s hands. I’ll take it step by step.”

“All right.” Rhodey bumped his fist against Tony’s shoulder. “Whatever happens, I have your back. And so do Jarvis and Pepper.”

Tony hadn’t doubted they would, but it was good to hear it nonetheless. “Thank you, Rhodey.”

“Now, c’mon.” Rhodey pulled out an M-ration, offering it to Tony. “We missed dinner.”

* * *

Steve helped them break camp the next morning, doing so in such an efficient manner that Tony highly suspected he was military. Even if his outfit definitely wasn’t anything the military would issue their soldiers.

And that shield. Was he _trying_  to get shot? (…Maybe? Shields were supposed to be defensive. But why didn’t he have any guns?)

Steve also insisted on taking some of their supplies, seeming not to notice the additional weight and hiking like it was a walk through the park.

He seemed marginally more cheerful than he had yesterday, asking Tony questions about what he did and where he knew Rhodey from. He didn’t ignore Rhodey, but it was clear that most of his attention was on Tony, and he sometimes looked at Tony like he was trying to figure something out.

To be fair, Tony was looking at him like that, too.

It wasn’t that Tony thought he knew Steve, because he knew that he really, really didn’t. There was no way he could forget a face like Steve’s (even if that sounded incredibly shallow). But beyond the fact that he didn’t remember ever meeting Steve physically…there was no denying that something about him felt familiar, like meeting an old friend.

If one had no idea who that old friend was.

“So you’re an adventurer?” Steve seemed stuck on this one topic, as he’d looked slightly surprised upon finding out what Tony did for a living. It was strange since Tony made no secret of what he did, and his name was well known (not to boast but it was the truth).

“And engineer,” Tony said. “But I mostly go for adventuring. Why do you think we found you?”

“You like exploring caves?” Steve shrugged.

Tony grinned ruefully. “I can’t say it’s my favorite thing, but it’s part of the job. I’m glad to get back to it now.”

“What were you doing before?”

“Helping out with the war,” Tony answered vaguely, waving his hand through the air. He paused, shooting Steve a sidelong look. “You know about the war?”

“Yes,” Steve responded, surprising Tony. “But I would have heard of you.”

Tony frowned slightly. “Probably.”

“Seriously, you’ve never heard of  _Marvels_?” Rhodey asked. “Not everyone reads it, but it’s kind of hard to miss, even on the frontlines.”

Steve’s lips thinned. “I suppose I missed it, then.”

“Well, here’s another question,” Rhodey said. “How come we haven’t heard of you?”

“I wasn’t exactly on the frontlines,” Steve said slowly. “Or, well…I was, but not with the rest of the troops. I led my own unit.”

“Ah, a captain, hm?” Tony evaluated Steve with a new eye. Still, that uniform definitely wasn’t Army-issued. Not unless the Army suddenly decided it was a great idea to outfit all their men in red, white, and blue. Could one get even more patriotic?

Steve’s smile was lopsided and had Tony’s heart unexpectedly skipping. “Of a sort.”

“We weren’t on the frontlines either,” Rhodey pointed out, breaking probably about fifteen different regulations that Fury had Tony look over before sending him out anywhere (or was it twenty? Tony had stopped paying attention after a certain point).

“There were a lot of backlines,” Steve said placidly, giving Rhodey a slightly cheeky smile.

“Now there’s a nice thought.”

The conversation shifted to more neutral lines, focusing on some of the (heavily edited) missions Steve had run and the adventures Tony had gotten into (also edited but only slightly; Steve was getting more of the truth than Tony’s readers did). None of Steve’s missions seemed remotely familiar to Tony or Rhodey, and it seemed incredibly unlikely that he would have been such a secret that neither of them would have heard of him.

Something was still odd, but Steve wasn’t a bad guy. Rhodey probably still harbored doubts, but Tony didn’t (couldn’t).

Steve hadn’t seemed too surprised at any of the technology or supplies they had, so it wasn’t likely that he’d been frozen that long (he couldn’t have been frozen that long anyway because he’d been there for this war so why did he keep thinking  _decades_?). Yet there were other inconsistencies that had Tony wondering who he was and what he’d been doing. It was true that not everyone read  _Marvels_ , but Tony was famous for more than that.

And if Steve was American (which his occasional Brooklyn accent gave him away as), then there was little reason for him to not know who Tony Stark was (even if that made Tony sound really conceited).

It could wait until they got to their camp. If it turned out that Steve was not who Tony thought he was (his heart said that was a ridiculous notion but his brain insisted that he be careful because he’d been betrayed too many times), it would be better if Tony had both his suit and Jarvis close at hand.

* * *

After another night in the foothills, they reached Jarvis’s camp in the early afternoon. To his credit, Jarvis only blinked twice on seeing Tony and Rhodey come back with a third person in tow. He didn’t seem to recognize Steve either, but he didn’t mind handing out more of their food for Steve to eat or pulling out additional blankets.

The crates for the Iron Man armor remained untouched, although Steve eyed them curiously while he ate.

“So,” Tony said once Steve was almost finished scarfing his food down. It was impressive, if not a little terrifying. Steve had eaten more than he and Rhodey combined within the last two days and Tony would really like to know where he put it. “I’ve got a question for you.”

“Mm?” Steve looked up, giving Tony a curious look.

“You said you were fighting HYDRA,” Tony said, “but you don’t remember how you got in that cave or what happened. But do you remember  _when_  it happened?”

“January, I think,” Steve said slowly. “It was winter and snowing where we were at.”

“How about the year?”

“Nineteen forty-five?” Steve said it uncertainly, like he wasn’t sure what Tony was expecting of him. He put the remnants of his meal down. “How long has it been?” He sounded faintly terrified, like he expected it to have been decades since he went under.

Tony blinked and shook his head slightly at the odd reoccurring thought. Decades, really?

Refocusing, he hastened to reassure Steve. “Not that long. It’s May now. Nineteen forty-six. You’re missing a little over a year.”

Steve’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “And the war?”

“It’s over,” Tony said. “Germany surrendered last year, and the Japanese not long after.” He didn’t touch on what happened with the atomic bombs. Steve didn’t need to hear about that just yet.

“What about HYDRA?”

“‘Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place,’” Rhodey quoted, disgust in his tone. “We just can’t get rid of them. I mean, we’ve tried. They really do like Tony.”

“No kidding,” Tony said.

“I wouldn’t call it a joking matter,” Jarvis said reprovingly.

“They want you?” Steve leaned forward, his blue eyes pinning Tony in place.

Tony held Steve’s gaze, his heart skipping another few beats as he did so. There was no reason for such a reaction. Steve’s eyes weren’t any different from anyone else’s…

“Let’s just say they have a personal investment in getting me to their side,” Tony said eventually, not wanting to think about who was in charge of HYDRA.

“Well, that’s not surprising,” Steve said. “You’re clever. You’d probably revamp their entire weapons system in a week.”

His cheeks flushed slightly, and Tony cleared his throat, ignoring the amused look Rhodey shot his way. “Maybe. If I didn’t blow their base sky high first.” If he didn’t make sure that they’d never ever turn him into the next Zemo.

“And that suit of yours,” Steve said, grinning. “The one you told me about. It must have made them furious that they couldn’t figure it out. I can’t believe you can fly in it.”

“For short distances,” Tony said. “It’s a bit too heavy for anything longer.”

“What do you mean?” Steve’s grin faded slightly, his brow furrowing. “I thought it was light?”

“I wish.” Tony gave a short laugh, spreading his hands. Rhodey was rummaging around in one of his smaller bags. “It’d be nice if it was, and I have ideas for that, but sadly I can’t manage it with technology as it is.” He gestured towards the crates. “It’s a pain in the ass to take it anywhere, and it takes several minutes to put on. Maybe two if we push it.”

Steve looked rather perplexed, not reacting as Rhodey let out a small “ah-ha!” and pulled out a rather beaten issue of  _Marvels_  from his bag.

“I thought I had one with me,” Rhodey said, coming over to crouch by Steve. “Here’s one of the earliest issues we released. Featuring yours truly…and the suit,” he added, giving Tony a sidelong glance and a small smirk.

Steve took the issue, studying the front page for a few moments before meeting Tony’s eyes again. “I thought it was red and gold?”

Once again, Tony found himself thrown for a loop. “Red and gold? That sounds rather ostentatious, doesn’t it?” It wouldn’t blend in well at all (not that were was much camouflaging one could do with a giant suit of armor; still, Tony  _tried_ ).

“It sounds like you,” Steve said, sounding sincere. Coming from anyone else, it could have been an insult. Steve made it sound like red and gold being Tony’s colors was as natural like the sky being blue.

Tony’s mouth went dry and he swallowed, resisting the urge to wet his lips. “Does it?”

“It rather does,” Rhodey admitted slowly. “A bit flashy, a bit loud… Yeah, that sounds right up your alley, Tony.”

“It’s not getting a paint job,” was all Tony managed to say. “Not here, anyway.”

Steve seemed slightly disappointed at first, but his expression soon gave way to vague confusion as his eyes flickered between Tony and to where the suit was packed up.

That was just fine with Tony. He was confused himself as to what was going on here.

* * *

Later that day, Steve stopped helping pack up the camp to squint closely at Tony for several long moments. Then, once Tony had time to freak out and wonder if there was something grievously wrong with his face, Steve said, “I thought you had a…” He seemed to search for the right word. “Goatee? No, that’s not… Van Dyke?”

Tony stared at him for a moment, remembering that he  _had_  had a Van Dyke a few years ago, but it’d gotten a bit impractical to keep doing it so he’d downsized to a simple mustache during the war years.

“Yeah, Tony,” Rhodey drawled. “Where’s your Dyke? You look a bit like one of those mustache-twirling villains…”

“I do  _not_ ,” Tony protested, though it was more because of the principle of the matter than because he disagreed.

“It doesn’t look bad,” Steve said slowly. He said it with the tone of one who was trying to pacify someone who was wrong. “I mean,” he added, “you look good. You always do.” It took an instant before he seemed to realize what he’d said and proceeded to flush pink, ducking his head and returning to packing with a vengeance.

Somehow this seemed to involve singlehandedly picking up an entire box that had required the combined efforts of Jarvis and Rhodey when it’d been initially unloaded.

Tony watched him, thumbing his mustache (definitely not an evil villain mustache!) thoughtfully. Well…if there was any time to try go back to his old style…now was probably the best time to do so (no one could yell at him for not adhering to military rules, even if he’d never technically  _been_  part of the Army).

* * *

Later that evening, once everything was packed save for what they still needed to camp for the night, Tony found Steve perched on a large boulder and staring at the Himalayas. The mountain range was shrouded in darkness but for the snow-capped peaks glistening in the starlight and the crescent moon.

It was freezing cold away from the warmth of the campfire, and Tony wrapped his arms around himself, shivering as he walked over to the base of the boulder. “You okay out here?” Steve didn’t like the cold. …Right?

Steve didn’t answer immediately, and Tony couldn’t read his face in the dark. But then he shifted, head turning to look down at Tony. He reached a hand down, waiting for something until Tony realized that he was willing to pull him up.

It took two seconds before Tony was sitting next to Steve on a cramped boulder, having been lifted like he was nothing but a backpack filled with leaves. Steve was warm, and Tony couldn’t help but huddle closer.

He should think twice about doing this, especially with another man. But there were no secrets from Steve—

Wait, that wasn’t true.

Yet…Tony trusted that it didn’t matter. Besides, Steve pressed into the contact between their shoulders, arms wrapped around his knees. If he had any issues about this, he wouldn’t do that.

“I was in Europe before,” Steve said a while later, still staring at the mountains. “Not in Nepal.”

Tony tilted his head, watching the little he could make out of Steve’s face. “You remember?”

“Not really.” Steve sounded like he was smiling ruefully (and how did he  _know_  that from the sound of Steve’s voice?). “But I know we weren’t here, that we were somewhere on the ground in Europe. It might have been Germany – probably was. We were looking for something.”

Tony didn’t ask what. Steve wouldn’t tell him that. “You were fighting HYDRA.”

“We always were,” Steve said, “one way or another.” He tensed, arms tightening around his knees, trembles running briefly through his body. “Something went wrong, I think. There was someone else there, but I can’t remember who. Only that he wanted to help.” He paused, turning his face to look at Tony. “And then it was cold,” he whispered.

Tony didn’t hesitate before wrapping an arm around Steve’s broad shoulders, keenly reminded of when he’d done this before in a dark cave. Just like that time, Steve leaned into the touch, resting his head on Tony’s shoulder.

“It’s cold here, too,” Tony said when Steve didn’t say anything further.

“Not that cold,” Steve murmured. “I don’t know what happened. To me or to my team. Are they all right? Did they make it out? Do they think I’m dead?”

“We can look for them once we’re back,” Tony offered. “Give me some names and I can start.”

“I shouldn’t…” Steve turned his head further, nose brushing against Tony’s jaw. His breath was warm against Tony’s skin, and he had to repress a shudder, grateful that no one else was here to see them like this. It felt far too intimate.

The ghost that was still watching them seemed to mock him and the prickling hairs on the back of his neck. (He really hoped there wasn’t a ghost and just his overactive imagination thanks to Rhodey.)

“You don’t—” Tony started.

“James Buchanan Barnes,” Steve interrupted resolutely. “I called him Bucky. He was…he was a kid. He wasn’t even eighteen when he joined. But he wanted to help and I…I couldn’t tell him no considering what he knew.”

What had an underage kid known to let Steve have him join the war efforts? It must have been something incredibly important.

The shield flashed through his mind, and Tony swallowed.

“Gabriel Jones,” Steve continued. “Dum-Dum Dugan. James Morita. James Montgomery Falsworth. And Jacques Dernier.”

“That’s…a pretty small team there, Cap.” The nickname came out automatically.

“They were the best,” Steve said wistfully. “I don’t want them to think I’m dead.” Left unspoken was the silent  _I want to know if they’re alive._

“Okay,” Tony said. “Okay,” he repeated, tightening his grip on Steve’s shoulder. “Let’s find out.”

Steve murmured a nearly inaudible “thank you” into Tony’s neck and exhaled, relaxing into Tony’s hold.

It was very nice, and Tony was definitely enjoying this more than he should. Except for how the boulder they were sitting on was ice cold and the wind chill wasn’t anything to sniff at either.

“Come on, Steve.” Tony kept his voice gentle as he pushed Steve away. “Let’s go back to camp. I’m freezing, and you can’t be much warmer since you were out here even longer than me.”

Steve studied him for a long moment, and Tony wished he could see Steve’s face instead of the shadows he was left with. What could Steve see that could justify why he was looking for so long?

“You keep me warm,” Steve said finally, one hand coming between them to find Tony’s and hold it. “But let’s go back.”

The blush that covered Tony’s cheeks was thankfully hidden in the dark and easily missed in the campfire’s light.

The ghost (which was totally nonexistent and definitely the icy wind at Tony’s back) waved at his back.

But was it saying hi or goodbye? (Or maybe he was definitely overthinking it because there was no such ghost here.)

* * *

The truck they’d taken to drive to this remote village had two seats in the front and space for about two people in the back in addition to all the supplies they’d taken. Rhodey had sat in the back on the way here, but Tony didn’t want to sit in the front this time (away from Steve).

Rhodey gave him a look when Tony told Jarvis that he and Steve would be sitting in the back, a look that said he and Tony would be having words.

And they did as soon as Steve was in the back of the truck and Rhodey pulled him aside.

“You sure about this, Tony?” Rhodey asked in an undertone. “You don’t even know him.”

“I’m sure,” Tony answered, shoulders tightening. He resisted the urge to grit his teeth. “I know we just met him but…I feel like I’ve known him for years.”

“You sure act like it,” Rhodey said, sounding perturbed. “And so does he. I just…we don’t know his history. We don’t know where he came from, how he ended up in that cave. His story doesn’t match up with what we know of the war. Can we trust him?”

“I already do,” Tony said just a tinge sharply. A second later he exhaled, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. Yes, Rhodey,” he continued in a gentler tone. “I can’t explain it, but I do. I trust him. If you don’t trust him, can you at least trust me?”

“I do,” Rhodey said. “But I don’t know if I should trust this. You know I don’t have any issues with you being who you are, but you know not everyone’s going to see it like that. You really want to risk your life on him? A man you just met?”

“I know the risks, Rhodey,” Tony said quietly, seriously. “There’s been no one else out here but us. It might not even be what you’re thinking.”

“Trust me, it definitely is. You don’t see the look on his face when you’re not looking.”

Tony paused, considering that. His chest warmed at the thought (and it definitely wasn’t the plate protecting his heart). “Okay, well… Putting that aside, I don’t know what’s going on, but I trust him. I know he wouldn’t hurt me. Once we get back, we’ll find out what happened to him. Undercover ops or no, there have to be records, and I bet Fury knows something.”

“You’re going to go to Fury with this? I thought we said you weren’t going to do that considering how we found him.”

“If I have to,” Tony said. “First things first, we’re going to find out what happened to his team. If we get that, finding the rest should be easier. They were in the Army, so there are going to be records of their enlistment, even if most of it is censored.”

Rhodey studied him for a long moment, eyes dark. “All right,” he said finally, clapping Tony once on the shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. “I trust you. But if he does something…” He trailed off threateningly, the corner of his mouth curling up.

“I think he could break you like a twig, but the thought’s appreciated.”

“Hey now.” Rhodey sounded offended, glancing down at his not-insignificantly muscular arms in doubt.

“I think it’s science,” Tony continued absentmindedly, remembering how Steve had lifted crates that Rhodey and Jarvis needed to help each other with. “He doesn’t  _look_  that strong, does he?”

“I refuse to comment,” Rhodey said. “You have fun with your new bosom buddy.”

Tony grabbed his arm before he could go back to the truck. “Hey, Rhodey…thanks.”

Rhodey’s expression softened. “Of course, man.”

Tony waited for a few moments after Rhodey went off to the truck, watching Steve in the back of the truck. He tried to picture Steve betraying him – Steve  _hurting_  him – Steve doing anything that seemed remotely villainous, but the picture just didn’t come together. Instead, it gave him a kneejerk reaction of  _hell no_  of the likes of which he’d never had before since finding out Zemo was Howard Stark.

It should worry Tony that he trusted Steve this much after meeting him only a few days ago, but it didn’t.

It was reassuring. The idea that Steve would be there – was  _safe_ … Tony didn’t have a lot of people in his life who genuinely classified as  _safe_.

“Tony?” Steve sounded bemused, and he eyed Tony in thinly veiled concern.

Tony realized he’d been staring rather dopily at Steve for too long to be brushed off as casual. He managed a relaxed grin and shook his head, jogging lightly over to the truck and accepting Steve’s hand as he clambered into the back of the truck.

He pulled the tarp closed enough to shield them from the worst of the wind but still letting some light in. The airship they’d taken to get to Nepal in the first place wasn’t that far off physically speaking, but the terrain wasn’t the easiest as there were no actual roads. Since they didn’t want a mechanical failure on account of going too fast, the trip would take them into the late afternoon.

Hours of sitting in the dark on a bumpy truck didn’t exactly appeal to Tony, but he did have Steve here to help pass the time.

“So what’s the deal with the shield?” Tony asked once they’d been driving for about fifteen minutes. “It’s not exactly standard Army issue.”

“No,” Steve said fondly, resting a hand on the surface of the shield resting by him, “it isn’t.”

“What’s it made out of? The metal’s nothing I’ve seen before.”

Steve pursed his lips, clearly thinking. “Vibranium,” he answered finally. “It’s the rarest metal on Earth. Absorbs impacts like nothing else.”

Tony had  _heard_  of vibranium, but he’d never thought he’d ever get to handle it himself. Wakanda was notoriously secretive with their resources, so how had Steve gotten enough to make an actual  _shield_?

“And the star?” Tony asked instead. “I’m guessing you want people to shoot at it?”

The corner of Steve’s mouth quirked up in a small smile. “Of course. A shield is only good if it’s shielding you.”

Tony smirked. “You sell war bonds with that motto, Cap?”

“Not with that one,” Steve said. He cleared his throat, looking vaguely embarrassed as he said in a vaguely songlike manner, “Each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy’s gun.”

Tony stared at him in wonder, pressing his lips together in an effort not to laugh at the outrageous statement (or more like how Steve said it). “Seriously? I was joking.”

“Oh.” Steve averted his gaze, rubbing the back of his neck.

Tony kindly ignored Steve’s obvious embarrassment, realizing that what he’d said didn’t sound quite right. “But when did you sell those?”

“Nineteen-forty?”

“And they were all over the place?”

“Of course,” Steve said. “That was before I led my unit. They, uh…didn’t quite think I had it in me. So I supported the war effort in other ways.”

Then why hadn’t Tony seen a single poster to that effect? He hadn’t been part of the war in 1940, at least not the extent he was in the latter three years, but one couldn’t avoid seeing the posters asking people to buy war bonds. Considering how far he’d traveled, he’d seen a lot. And if Steve had been selling them…

“They didn’t use my face for it,” Steve continued. “Not really. I was just…a symbol.” He hesitated briefly. “They…called me Captain America.”

A shiver ran through Tony. The skin on the back of his neck prickled; when he closed his eyes, he could almost picture what Steve must have looked like as Captain America. He’d seen the outfit already – ruined and tattered as it was (and now stuffed into a bag while Steve wore some of Rhodey’s and Jarvis’s spare clothes) – and Steve didn’t lose any of his commanding presence even in rather ill-fitting clothes (probably had more what with how the shirts just couldn’t really fit over his broad shoulders and amazing muscles).

“That explains the uniform,” Tony managed, opening his eyes to meet Steve’s. He didn’t say  _I’ve never heard of you. I’ve never seen you before. If you sold war bonds so widely in 1940, why have I never seen a single one of your posters?_

Steve shrugged, grinning wryly. “It wasn’t exactly my idea, but they ran with it.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell me you’re Captain America, were you?”

“No.” Steve tilted his head. “But you saw the uniform, the shield… Besides, I don’t know why, but I trust you. I didn’t have to tell you my name – I shouldn’t have – but I looked at you and couldn’t think of a reason why I shouldn’t.”

Tony swallowed, pressing his weight against the crate next to him as the truck drove over a particularly rough patch.

Steve exhaled, one hand fisted loosely on the shield and the other holding onto a crate. “I just woke up, you were the first face I saw, and the first thing I thought was  _I know him_. Isn’t that strange?”

Tony remembered the feel of Steve’s hand on his face, the way he had stroked at Tony’s chin with his thumb. A far more intimate gesture than most of his bed partners had ever given him.

“I trust you,” Steve told him, the hand on the crate flexing slightly. “I trust you with my life. I have no reason to – not really – but something in me just…”

“Says it’s okay,” Tony whispered, so quietly that it was almost drowned out by the engine of the truck and the rattling of the tires, yet Steve seemed to hear him nonetheless. “Says that it’s the right thing to do.”

“Yes.” Steve watched him with bright eyes, a small smile pulling at his lips and lightening his whole face. “You feel it, too, right?”

“I’m a man who believes in science,” Tony said instead of answering the question. “I don’t know what this is, but it’s nothing that’s ever happened on any of my adventures before. But yes, Steve. I trust you.” He hesitated, then thought it was only fair to let Steve know some of what he’d been thinking. “I don’t know what’s going to happen once we’re back – if we’re able to find your team or not, Steve.”

“I know.” Steve looked pained. “But whatever happens…as long as you’re at my back…”

“It’ll be okay,” Tony finished.

The words hung in the air between them, and they stared at each other, loose-limbed and relaxed except for when the truck jolted.

Tony had Rhodey, of course, but Steve was… Steve was different in a way he couldn’t explain. Having him at his back felt so utterly  _right_ , and Tony couldn’t believe he’d never missed it before.

The saying about never knowing what you’re missing until you have it did have something going for it.

Tony moved his stretched out leg to touch Steve’s, nudging the other’s foot gently.

Steve smiled at him, the expression soft and gentle. Tony’s breath hitched at the sight, and his chest warmed (definitely not because of his poor heart). Abruptly, he had the urge to kiss Steve and it was only because they were in the back of a jostling truck with no safety equipment that he didn’t.

If Tony’s eyes didn’t deceive him, it seemed like Steve’s cheeks were slightly flushed as he pressed back against Tony’s foot.

“Tony—”

There was a loud shout from the front, followed by a sharp jerk of the truck that had Tony slamming into the crate to his right, suddenly grateful that they were packed in like sardines back here. It would have been worse if there’d been more room.

There was a grunt from Steve, and he grabbed for his shield before it could go sliding away.

For a terrifying moment, it felt like the truck would tip over on its side, but then it stabilized. By the time the vehicle was back on all four wheels, Tony’s teeth were grinding and his jaw was so tightly clenched he would probably have jaw pain tomorrow.

“Fuck, Jarvis!” Tony scrambled for the exit, only to be held back by Steve.

“Wait!” Steve’s grip was unshakable, just on the verge of too tight. “We don’t know what’s out there!”

“We’re not staying in here!”

“I’m not suggesting that.” Steve’s voice was frustratingly calm. “Let me go first and see what’s going on.”

Tony hesitated briefly before nodding, exhaling sharply. He inched to the side to let Steve by, flexing his arm where Steve had held him tightly (yet gently).

“What do you have on you?” Steve asked quietly.

“A gun,” Tony answered, since he practically always carried one now. Even when stashed away in the back of a truck. “Do you need one?”

“No.” Steve hefted the shield up, face determined. “I’m going to go out first. You—”

“If you think I’m going to hide in here while you’re out there, you need to reassess your plan,” Tony interrupted, shooting him a sharp glare. “I might not be able to get into the suit, but that doesn’t mean I’m helpless.”

Steve bit his lower lip but didn’t say anything. He nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Without another word, Steve jumped outside, apparently throwing caution to the wind.

Tony took a moment to reflect on why the hell Steve would just fling himself into an unknown situation before he moved forward and poked his head out, significantly more cautious than Steve had been.

There were six visible HYDRA minions that he could make out from his vantage point. There were probably more to the front where Jarvis and Rhodey had been.

Steve was standing right before him, shield up in a defensive position and his legs braced. Tony carefully got out behind him, gun in one hand and finger off the trigger.

His heart pounded behind the repulsor pump, and Tony spared a brief thought for the remaining charge. It would be fine. He still had a few days left and that was without using the suit. Which he wouldn’t be doing right now because it was packed in a crate.

“Ah, Tony!” An unpleasantly familiar voice came from behind them. “So good to see you. I was surprised to see that you weren’t sitting in the front.”

Tony turned, taking a half-step back when Steve sidestepped in front of him. “Zemo.”

Rhodey and Jarvis were standing behind Zemo, hands up in the air as several guns were pointed at them. Neither looked injured, although Jarvis looked pissed as hell. Rhodey was glaring daggers at Zemo’s back.

The man who had once been Howard Stark – his  _father_  – seemed to glance at Steve. It was difficult to tell with the mask over his head. After a moment he seemingly dismissed Steve and returned his focus to Tony.

“Hired a bodyguard, did you?” Zemo asked. “How banal. I expected more of you.”

“Zemo,” Steve snapped, sounding surprisingly fierce. There was an edge to his voice that Tony honestly hadn’t expected.

But Steve had gone up against HYDRA before, hadn’t he? So it was likely that he and Zemo had crossed paths. Even if Zemo didn’t seem to care.

“You know my name,” Zemo said mockingly. “Did you tell him, son?”

“I don’t know what you’re planning, Zemo,” Steve said fiercely, “but you’re not getting Tony.”

Even though Zemo was wearing a mask, Tony could tell that he was staring at Steve.

“Do I know you?” Zemo asked, sounding politely confused. “Is there a reason you’re still standing here when you have better things to do than defend someone who doesn’t need it?”

“From where I’m standing, you’re the one who should be gone.” Steve hefted the shield up. “You know exactly who I am.”

Zemo paused, tilting his head. “I do?”

“Steve,” Tony whispered, “what are you doing?”

“Let’s take this elsewhere,” Steve said, ignoring Tony (which was honestly insulting but it wasn’t like Tony could protest about it right now). “You don’t want to do this here.”

“I don’t?” Zemo still had that tone of polite confusion, although it was now accompanied by an air of bemusement. “Why would I not?” He sounded slightly interested in Steve’s reasoning.

“You want me, you got me,” Steve said, which didn’t even make any sense. Zemo wanted Tony (unless something had changed since Tony had seen Zemo last). “You don’t need to bring them into this. Let them go.”

“Why would I want you?” Zemo sounded like he was considering Steve an idiot. It was a tone Tony was intimately familiar with, as Howard had loved to use it on people he thought too stupid to breathe (or make important decisions. It would be easier to hate Zemo if he didn’t have so many of Tony’s father’s mannerisms). “You have muscles, but anyone can hire a set of those.” He waved a hand towards the minions surrounding them. Some did look rather like they could give Steve a run for his money in the muscles department. One even cracked his knuckles threateningly.

Tony couldn’t see Steve’s face, but he had the solid impression that Steve was becoming uncertain (why was that thought vaguely terrifying?).

“I’m Captain America,” Steve said finally, no sign of his uncertainty in his voice.

Steve said the title like it meant something, but Tony had never heard of a Captain America before. Even Rhodey and Jarvis looked uncomprehending, so clearly it wasn’t a moment of Tony missing out on a pop culture reference because he’d spent too long in the middle of nowhere again.

“How nice for you,” Zemo said condescendingly. “I’m sure your esteemed nation could use such a fine captain. Now please step aside. I came to this forsaken place for a reason and it wasn’t to trade words with a nobody.”

Steve lowered the shield slightly, his shoulders dropping an inch. “You…don’t know me?” He sounded dazed, as if the earth had vanished from under his feet (Tony would know – being an expert in finding himself in that exact situation multiple times).

Zemo buffed his nails against his jacket. “Should I?”

“I…” Steve took a moment, but then his shoulders squared and the shield went back up to its former position. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, determination in every syllable. “You can’t have Tony.”

“What do you propose to do about that,  _Captain_?” Zemo gave the title a sneer it didn’t deserve.

“Nothing much, really,” Steve said casually, shrugging. “But you’ll have to go through me, and I guarantee that won’t be easy.”

“Won’t it?” Zemo was probably raising an eyebrow under that mask. His arm moved, most likely drawing a gun, but he didn’t have a chance to do anything else.

Steve coiled, twisting to the side, and then uncoiled, arms flying out. A colorful blur escaped his hands – the  _shield_  (which was definitely not being used like a shield right now) – and hit Zemo directly in the chest, knocking him flat over. And then the shield rebounded back into Steve’s hands.

“There’s more where that came from,” Steve said, no longer in a defensive position. It should have looked ridiculous given he was in borrowed clothes that were at once a bit short (his pants were an inch above his ankles) and too tight (the seams of his shirt looked like they were liable to burst at any moment and Tony would be first in line with a loud  _Hallelujah!_ ), but Steve carried himself with such aplomb that Tony couldn’t help but want to climb all over that.

In private. Where, you know, there weren’t any eyewitnesses.

Tony shoved those thoughts in a dark corner to be brought back once he was in his own bedroom, focusing on the here and now. Zemo might be temporarily knocked down, but there were still his minions to take care of.

The HYDRA minions looked at each other and then back at Steve. Finally one of the largest minions stepped forward, cracking his knuckles menacingly. That was the same guy who’d cracked them before. He must make a living cracking knuckles menacingly.

Steve eyed him, angled his body to the side, and then threw the shield again.

The HYDRA minion dodged it and lunged forwards. Tony took the opportunity to dive to the side and shoot one of the others in the leg. There was a pained cry and the one he’d aimed at dropped to the ground.

Steve was wrestling with his opponent, and it seemed for an instant that it could go either way considering his opponent had muscles the size of Tony’s head. But then Steve wiggled and suddenly the minion’s head went slamming into the side of the truck.

Jarvis and Rhodey had taken the opportunity to cause some chaos of their own and Tony was about to join them when the guy he was aiming for went down with a startled yelp.

Blinking, Tony realized that the shield Steve had thrown had somehow made its way back and was bouncing around the clearing, happily knocking into every single minion that was stupidly standing in their spots.

It was completely improbable (not impossible because clearly Tony was seeing it happen with his own eyes). But then…this was vibranium they were talking about…

Still, a bouncing shield? Shields were supposed to be defensive, not…whatever this thing was.

Jarvis and Rhodey had taken down the two minions who’d had guns to their heads and were looking rather at a loss for what to do now.

Everything had taken maybe ten seconds, and Steve stood up, reaching out to catch his improbably bouncing shield when an energy bolt hit him in the chest and blasted him back into the truck with a pained grunt.

“Steve!” The cry escaped Tony before he realized he was saying it, panic rising in his chest and choking his throat. His heart pounded behind the repulsor pump, and Tony glanced to where the blast had come from, seeing Zemo stand up with a metallic and strange gun in his hands.

That definitely wasn’t anything Tony had ever seen before. Clearly Zemo had been busy since the last time Tony had seen him and escaped his clutches.

Well, it didn’t matter. Tony wouldn’t let Zemo have him. He wasn’t going to let HYDRA turn him into another Zemo and use him to further their scheme for world domination.

“How passionate,” Zemo sneered, readying the gun for another shot. “I had no idea you cared so much for your bodyguards, son.”

Steve wasn’t just a  _bodyguard_. (What was he? Tony didn’t have an answer and the uncertainty burned because he didn’t just  _trust_  people like that.) But there was no way he would tell Zemo that.

“It’s me you want, isn’t it?” Tony snapped, spreading his arms out. “You’ve got me.”

“Oh, I do.” Zemo wasn’t looking at him, his strange gun still aimed at Steve. “But you’re all I need. Everyone else…is just spare parts.”

For an instant, Tony froze, blinking dumbly. Spare parts? Spare…parts?  _Spare parts_?

Zemo raised the gun, and this time Tony could hear something like high-pitched humming. He was going to shoot Steve again, who was still looking rather dazed and twitchy from whatever that energy bolt had been.

It had been maybe a minute since Zemo had fired the first shot at Steve. He needed more time. More time he wouldn’t have if Zemo shot at him right now.

Tony fired his own gun, not even aiming at anything specific. It was enough to make Zemo flinch and have his next shot go wide, clipping the top of the truck instead of Steve. The cloth caught on fire from the impact (but that wasn’t important, not as important as  _Steve_ ).

Tony lunged at Zemo before he could aim again, grabbing his right arm and trying to knock the gun out of his grip and to the ground. If it was on the ground, then at least Zemo didn’t have it in hand.

Zemo twisted in Tony’s hold, his body sturdier than Tony expected. He kicked at Tony’s legs, managing a lucky shot to Tony’s knee. It knocked him off balance, and for an instant Tony’s grip on Zemo faltered.

It was enough for Zemo to aim the gun again, this time at a Steve who was now on his feet and barreling towards them.

_No!_

It was an instinct deeper than blood, one that Tony didn’t even realize he’d had until it was shoved directly into his face. Ignoring the sharp pain in his knee, Tony  _moved_.

He threw himself in-between the gun and Steve in the scant seconds he had, heard something that sounded like someone shouting his name, and then felt something blow him off his feet and to the ground several feet away from Zemo. He found himself staring up at the sky, gasping for air that wouldn’t come and feeling strangely numb.

There was shouting, and when Tony turned his head he could see Steve knocking Zemo out with a single beautiful punch and then crushing the gun in his bare hands. (Which was kind of hot when Tony thought about it, which he wasn’t doing now clearly because  _ow_.)

“Tony!” Rhodey shouted, falling to his knees by Tony’s side.

Tony would have said something, but he was still strangely at a loss for air that wouldn’t come. And his heart – his heart was stuttering in his chest, feeling weaker with every beat.

Shit, shit,  _shit_. He’d had enough charge. What had that gun done?

His hands tried to work at his shirt, but he’d lost feeling to his fingers the moment he’d hit the ground. He couldn’t tell if he was touching cloth or skin or repulsor pump and the encroaching blackness wasn’t helping matters.

Someone batted his hands away and Tony let them fall to his sides, lungs heaving as he tried to pull in air that wouldn’t come. His heart kept skipping beats, and his lips felt numb and tingly now.

The last thing Tony saw past Rhodey’s concerned face was Steve’s, ashen white.

* * *

_Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump._

That sound shouldn’t be so soothing, but it was a testament to his life and the frequent near misses he had with his heart that it was probably the best lullaby he’d ever heard.

Since he was hearing his heart slowly and rhythmically beat away in his chest, someone had clearly managed to get Tony’s repulsor pump charged in time before he bit it. The last thing Tony remembered was Rhodey’s and Steve’s faces, so it wasn’t going to be HYDRA saving his ass because they wanted him to be Zemo.

Tony would have said no and then blown their base up for kicks before they injected him with the Zemo serum.

But that point was moot since he was fine and among friendlies (there was always a possibility that he  _wasn’t_  but he was an optimist. …When it suited him and this definitely suited him).

Tony let out a slow breath, evaluating the current state of his bruised chest and that everything seemed to be in working order. He was no longer gasping for air, which was a plus.

Opening his eyes, Tony found himself staring at the canvas of a tent. A warm blanket was thrown over him, and he was lying on something that probably wanted to be soft but due to age had lost all hope of ever being soft again. He was shirtless, but his repulsor pump was covering the glass plate protecting his heart, so it must have been some time since they shocked his heart back to life and recharged the apparatus.

Turning his head to the side, Tony saw Steve sleeping on a pallet by the entrance to the tent. The shield (the shield that defied physics and holy shit Tony wanted to study it even more now) was half-lying on top of a toolkit that Tony recognized as being where their medical supplies were stashed.

There were voices from outside, Rhodey and Jarvis talking to each other about setting up meeting points and how to get back to the States. Tony spent a few moments soaking it in, reveling in the fact that he was  _alive_  and everyone had made it out.

Except…he had no idea what happened after he passed out. Steve had taken Zemo out, hadn’t he? Or someone had. Honestly, Tony’s memories of what had happened as his heart gave out were a little fuzzy (panicking and desperately gasping for air would do that to a man).

Slowly shifting to an upright position, Tony winced as his chest complained at the movement. The entire area felt like one giant bruise, even if the skin looked mostly fine. There were the scars surrounding the repulsor plate, along with pale, pink streaks arcing out from it. What was definitely not normal was the deep bruising surrounding the entirety of the repulsor plate.

Like someone had decided to fuck it and kick him right there with extreme prejudice.

Tony rubbed at the skin carefully, expecting the throb of pain that resulted from the touch. It wasn’t terribly bad, but he was lucky he hadn’t bruised all his ribs on top of that. Maybe one or two judging from how it hurt to take too deep a breath, but it was nothing that wouldn’t heal in time. They weren’t broken, so that was a positive.

They couldn’t be that badly bruised if there wasn’t much external bruising.

Tony must have made a sound or something because Steve woke up with a small start, eyes flying open and his entire body jerking to an upright position like he was going to attack someone. It was a few seconds before the tension seeped out of Steve’s frame and he relaxed, evidently realizing that there was no one here save for Tony and him.

Then he noticed Tony was awake and his entire face  _lit up_. (Like Tony was somehow the sun or another star that didn’t make someone’s eyes burn out and Steve was so goddamn blessed to see him and maybe Tony was exaggerating a bit now.)

“Tony, you’re awake!” Steve moved over to him, hands fluttering briefly like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to touch.

“Sure am,” Tony said, smiling easily. “So are you. Didn’t have enough sleep before?”

Some of the joy seeped out of Steve’s expression to turn to worry. “It’s…you were out for a while, Tony. We were taking turns watching you.”

“That didn’t seem much like ‘watching.’ Unless I’m missing something and you can watch someone while you’re sleeping?”

A faint hue dusted Steve’s cheeks. “Maybe…” He averted his gaze. “I’m glad you’re awake, Tony. When you passed out…your heart  _stopped_.”

“That…does tend to happen.” Tony pulled his shoulders in, one hand covering the repulsor plate.

“So I’ve gathered.” Steve leaned forward, his own hand covering Tony’s where it was touching the repulsor plate. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s not something that comes up in casual conversation,” Tony said, even though that wasn’t the entire truth and Steve seemed to know it. He sighed. “It’s…not something I want people to know about.”

Steve’s voice was soft. “You could have told me.”

Tony didn’t answer immediately, letting his hand drop. Steve didn’t pull his hand away, so now they were touching hands on top of Tony’s lap. (Not for the first time Tony was glad it was just Jarvis and Rhodey outside.) “I didn’t want the way you looked at me to change,” he admitted quietly.

“It couldn’t.”

Tony watched Steve for a moment, seeing no hint of a lie in his face. “Since you know…I should tell you why I was really in that cave. This keeps my heart running, but it’s a temporary stopgap measure. It’s not going to last in the long run. My heart’s only got so much left in it, and I’ve been looking for a cure for years.” His mouth twisted. “I wasn’t really expecting to find anything but then…” He gave Steve a pointed look.

“Thank you for telling me.” Steve’s hand tightened reassuringly where it was still covering Tony’s. “This is probably selfish of me but…I’m glad you found me.”

“Not selfish at all,” Tony said, lips quirking into a small smile. “I’m grateful, too. I’m in this gig for the adventure, not just finding a cure. I’m sorry you got dragged in my mess.” He hesitated, then asked, “What happened to Zemo?”

“We tied him and the others up and left them there. Didn’t really have space for an extra passenger, especially since we needed to keep you alive.” Steve paused, eyes dropping. “I was really worried,” he admitted. “I thought you were going to die, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was too slow again.”

Tony almost wanted to ask what Steve meant by  _again_  but he decided against it. “He was going to shoot you.”

“You should have let him.”

“I couldn’t,” Tony said, which was the only answer he had. “I  _couldn’t_ ,” he repeated in response to Steve’s pinched expression. “And I don’t regret it.”

Steve sighed, head dropping. “Why am I not surprised?”

Tony almost said “you know me,” but stopped before the words came out. The truth was…Steve  _didn’t_  really know Tony. They’d known each other for three days, which didn’t really do much except for maybe establishing the grounds for a friendship.

And yet…while Tony couldn’t tell Rhodey what Steve’s favorite food was, how his face looked like when he laughed or ate something disgusting, what kind of books he liked to read, or what his hopes and dreams were, he couldn’t help but think that he already knew everything most important. Like that Steve was good down to his core, that he wouldn’t ever waver from his convictions (that thought sent a cold shiver down his spine for some reason), and that he absolutely  _hated_  the cold and being alone.

“I’m afraid,” Steve whispered, the words breaking Tony’s internal focus. He looked up to see Steve staring at his lap, his hair hiding his face from view. He was wearing what looked like a slightly larger shirt now (which looked like Jarvis’s largest), yet his tightly coiled muscles didn’t give the seams any slack.

“Afraid of what?” Tony asked gently when Steve didn’t immediately continue.

“Zemo didn’t know me,” Steve said. “And he…he’s always been like a dog with a bone when it came to me. He and Red Skull.”

Tony decided not to tell Steve that he had no idea who this Red Skull person was and that it sounded like a terrible title since skulls weren’t red.

“It’s been a little while since you’ve been around,” Tony opted to say, even if that was a piss-poor excuse.

“Not that long,” Steve said. “He didn’t know me, and he wanted you. Rhodey…he told me a little about who Zemo is to you, why he called you ‘son.’” His smile was wry. “He’s never called me that.”

Tony couldn’t even be angry with Rhodey about revealing that secret. He was just a  _little_  peeved that he couldn’t be the one to tell Steve himself. “Well,” he said lightly, “he’s not your father, is he?”

Steve looked like he wanted to laugh, his face twisting into a grimace. “But he’s yours.”

“He was,” Tony said. “The man he is now…” He swallowed, a pang wrenching his heart. “He’s as good as dead after what HYDRA did to him. It’s a serum, and it took years to take effect on him and turn him into what you saw. He’s modified it since and they…they want me for the next Zemo. Only it won’t take as long if they ever manage to get their hands on me.”

“I won’t let them,” Steve stated firmly, unhesitatingly, his face resolute. “They’ll have to go through me for that, and I’m not easy to take out.”

Tony remembered how quickly Steve had recovered from a shot that had stolen all his breath and almost killed him. “I can see that, champ,” he murmured. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” That freaking  _shield_. He cleared his throat, refocusing on Steve. “But you don’t want to spend all your time protecting me, do you? Don’t you have your team to find?”

Steve’s eyes shuttered. “You already know, don’t you?”

“Know what?”

“That I’m not from here. That my team isn’t here. That whatever happened to put me in that cave where you found me, it pulled me from my home. You knew that.”

“I didn’t,” Tony protested, forcing himself to meet Steve’s eyes. “I swear, Steve, I didn’t  _know_.”

“But you suspected.” Steve’s words fell like dead weights between them.

Tony dropped his eyes, hands fisting in his blanket. “Yes,” he admitted, throat thick. “There was… Too much didn’t add up. Not that you were lying, but nothing of what you said matched up with what we knew of the war, and we were in it pretty deep.”

Steve nodded once, eyes closing. “I think I knew,” he said quietly. “I think I knew that I wasn’t going to find my team…that I wasn’t home. But you were there, and I kept thinking that it couldn’t be true. How could I not be home if it felt like I was?”

Tony stared at him, uncomprehending. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Steve said. “Not really. Only that when I’m with you, it feels like everything will be fine. That I’m not alone, that I  _am_  home. But I’m not, am I?” He exhaled, shoulders slumping. “And I can’t go home, can I?”

“We don’t know that.” Tony reached out to touch him, beginning to shift his legs so he could sit more on his knees—

“Don’t move,” Steve said quickly, hands snapping out to stop Tony. “You’re still recovering.”

“I’m fine,” Tony said. But at a look from Steve he relented and settled back down. He refused to relinquish his grip on Steve’s arm, though. Some things had to be done. “As I was saying,” he continued, “we don’t know that you can’t go home.” Even if he rather thought it was likely Steve was stuck here (fifty years or maybe even a few decades from now it might be a different story but Tony didn’t have the technology here to determine what the hell had happened).

“Do you really believe that?” Steve’s smile was wry and just on the sweet side of tender. Like he knew what Tony was trying to do and appreciated it.

Tony bit his lip, unwilling to admit that he didn’t.

“It’s okay,” Steve said, sounding like it really was (even though it wasn’t because holy shit this wasn’t  _Steve’s home_ ). “I have the feeling that even if you could do it…there isn’t anything for me to go back home to. That whatever – or  _whomever_ ,” he added, a faraway look in his eyes, “did it did it because there wasn’t any going back.”

“You think it was a whom?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know. I still can’t remember what happened at the end.” Steve shrugged, smiling melancholically. “I don’t know if anyone else made it out or if it was just me. And if they did make it out…were they frozen like me? If they were, they’re probably dead anyway. It’s not like they can survive in the ice like I did. I only did because I have…” He paused, expression considering. Eventually he continued, speaking slowly, “I have a serum, too.”

Steve stopped there, watching Tony carefully.

For his part, Tony wasn’t entirely sure how he was supposed to react. A serum? What kind of serum? Evidently not the Zemo kind since Steve didn’t look crazy. He said as much, grinning all the while.

It got a chuckle out of Steve, which Tony was calling a success after the gloomy looks of the last so many minutes. “No, definitely not that one. I don’t know if you know him in this world, but the man who created it was Abraham Erskine, and I was part of Project Rebirth.”

“Can’t say the name’s familiar.”

Steve acknowledged the statement with a nod and a rueful smile. “I was the result.” He gestured with the arm that Tony wasn’t touching (he hadn’t even noticed he’d never let go), hand encompassing his entire (very impressive) body. “I’m still not sure what it did to me beyond the obvious, but clearly it went beyond that since I could survive being frozen in a block of ice.”

“Maybe your team’s fine,” Tony said, squeezing Steve’s arm gently now that he was once more aware of the physical contact. “We can keep looking.”

“I should say yes…” Steve looked down to where Tony’s hand was touching his arm. Tony went to retract it, only to stop when Steve placed his own hand over his. “But I don’t want to. I don’t want to keep hoping and be let down when we find nothing. When I already have what I need right here.”

Tony swallowed, Steve’s hand over his so very warm. “What’s that?”

Steve met his eyes, and Tony’s mouth went dry at what he saw in Steve’s.

“Steve…” Tony whispered, his trapped hand flexing. “We…”

“Shouldn’t?” Steve was leaning in. “They already know, don’t they? We haven’t exactly been subtle.”

“I was going to say we barely know each other,” Tony said, tone low. “They know me and don’t care, but everyone else will. We won’t be in the middle of the mountains forever.”

“I feel like I know you,” Steve murmured. “I feel like I’ve known you for years. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

It was, but Tony found himself saying, “It’s not.”

Steve kissed him, both hands coming up to frame Tony’s face. Steve’s lips were  _warm_ , and his hands were just as warm and so gentle where they brushed Tony’s cheeks and his ears before sinking into his hair. He kissed like a man who hadn’t ever done so before, lips clumsy but gentle where they pressed against Tony’s.

Tony inhaled sharply, lips parting, and his hands grasped Steve’s arms, fingers tightening in his shirt sleeves (which were so tightly fitted over Steve’s ridiculous biceps that it was a miracle nothing had torn yet). He pressed back, feeling like this was  _his_  first time kissing even though it wasn’t. His cheeks flushed and his heart pounded in his chest, beating against the repulsor plate protecting it from the world.

Steve broke away with a ragged gasp, pressing his face to Tony’s neck and shuddering. His face felt hot against Tony’s skin and his breathing rapid like he’d run a marathon without stopping.

Tony blinked, lips tingling from where Steve had been kissing him only moments before. He felt dazed, the entire world having shifted on its axis in some imperceptible way (Steve kissed him,  _Steve kissed him_ ).

Steve slowly pulled away, thumbs rubbing circles into the skin above Tony’s ears. His cheeks were red and his eyes bright even in the dim light of the tent. “I shouldn’t excite you,” he said, sounding rather breathless. “You’re still recovering.”

“Probably a good idea,” Tony agreed, his own voice just as breathless to his ears. “Even if I wish everything was fine.” He swallowed, taking several more breaths and feeling his heart return to a more relaxed rhythm. No one was going to let him do anything strenuous for a while after this, which was a shame since Tony and inactivity did not mix well together (Pepper had an entire book full of incidents, most of which had been contributed by Rhodey).

Steve’s eyes flickered down to the repulsor plate protecting the glass covering Tony’s heart. He must have seen Tony’s heart if he’d been involved in recharging the apparatus, yet he didn’t look repulsed or horrified. He just seemed terribly sympathetic and rather sad. One hand dropped to cover the plate, the touch gentle.

“You haven’t found anything to fix this, have you?” Steve asked.

“Still looking,” Tony said. “I found you this time, but it means I need to keep rooting out old myths and legends. At this point most of my major leads have dried out.” It was why he’d been out here to begin with, chasing a ridiculous tale with only a single mad source as its originator.

“Maybe…” Steve wet his lips, closing his eyes briefly. “Maybe there’s something I can do to help. Maybe it wasn’t a mistake that you came out here.”

“Finding you wasn’t a mistake,” Tony said fiercely, his grip on Steve tightening. “Don’t you dare think it was. It might not have been what I expected – definitely wasn’t if I’m honest – but it was so much more than I ever could have imagined. And I don’t regret a thing.”

“Okay,” Steve breathed, pressing his forehead to Tony’s. “I’m glad. But still.”

“I’m always happy for another friend to go adventuring with,” Tony said.

“That’d be great,” Steve said, “but it’s not what I’m talking about.” He sounded nervous. “I was thinking more along the lines of my blood – the serum I was injected with. I didn’t tell you, but I was a 4F, rejected multiple times by the army until Erskine picked me for Project Rebirth. I was sick; you name it, and I probably had it at one point or another.”

Tony swept his eyes up and down Steve’s impressive physique that was in no way resembling a man who had been a 4F. “Doesn’t seem like it.”

“I didn’t always look like this. It was the serum.” Steve’s smile was pained. “It fixed everything. And I think…maybe it can help you, too. If it’d work on anyone else, it’d have to work on you.”

“Steve…” Tony’s heart fluttered in his chest (thankfully not in the unhealthy way). “You don’t—”

“If you’re going to tell me I don’t know you, I’m just going to have to say I disagree,” Steve said, glowering. “Because I do. I know exactly what I need to. And…” The glower transitioned to something much more uncertain. “Whatever I don’t…I can learn?”

Warmth bloomed in Tony’s chest, and he had to close his eyes and swallow against the sudden thickness in his throat. He didn’t know Steve (why did he keep telling himself this?), but he  _knew_  Steve. And, if he was being honest, he’d been a lost cause the moment Steve opened his eyes in that cave. The moment he’d even stepped foot into that cave, really.

“Yes,” Tony said finally, opening his eyes to meet Steve’s. He moved forward to press a quick kiss to Steve’s mouth. “As long as you want.”

Steve’s smile was achingly beautiful (and how was it Tony hadn’t seen him smile before? He needed to make Steve smile more often). “How does forever sound?”

“Like a promise.”

“I keep my promises,” Steve said, returning Tony’s kiss. And then, “You give me a home.” The words seemed like they were spoken absentmindedly, in-between kisses, but that didn’t make the weight they carried any less.

Tony closed his eyes and felt what seemed like someone tapping him on the shoulder for a brief moment before the sensation disappeared. The words sounded familiar, but he’d never heard them before.

“Tony being good in there?” Rhodey’s voice was loud, startling both of them. “He’s not supposed to do anything strenuous despite what he might be trying to tell you.”

“I haven’t done anything of the sort,” Tony called out, trying to ignore Steve’s almost silent snickering. “We’re being good, Rhodey.”

“That’s great. If you keep being good, we’re going to try and make it to the airship tomorrow.” With that said, Rhodey loudly tromped away.

“What do you think?” Tony asked Steve. “Think we can be good?”

“I won’t hurt you,” Steve said entirely seriously, running a gentle hand through Tony’s hair, scratching lightly at Tony’s scalp.

“I don’t think that’s something you can promise.”

“I can promise this,” Steve said stubbornly. “I won’t ever hurt you physically.”

Tony’s heart squeezed in his chest; he bit the inside of his cheek to focus. “That sounds good,” he managed. He touched Steve’s face with one hand, fingers stroking along that strong, angular jaw. “And I promise that I will always find you.” He didn’t know where that promise came from, only that he meant it down to his bones.

Steve’s answering smile was watery. “Now who’s making promises he can’t keep?”

“I found you this time, didn’t I?” Tony teased gently, rubbing at the corner of Steve’s eye with his thumb. “Didn’t even know I was looking.”

Steve’s breath hitched, his eyes closed, and he drifted forward to press his forehead to Tony’s. “I don’t want to be lost again,” he whispered.

Hugging him was as natural as breathing. “You won’t,” he said, even though it wasn’t a promise he should make (but he was going to all the same because Steve was  _here_ ). “You’re here now.”

Steve shuddered, nodding slightly. He shifted, dropping until his forehead rested against Tony’s left shoulder and the tension seeped out of his muscles. It was like feeling someone turn from ice to water, and Tony felt honored that Steve trusted him enough to show that.

He turned his head, pressing his lips to Steve’s hair, breathing him in and thinking the future looked awfully bright. Maybe he didn’t have a cure for his heart yet, but he had something else right now.

There’d been something in the mountains. It might not have been what he expected, but he’d found it all the same.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/152315641@N07/41656520054/in/dateposted-public/)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, I didn't just decide MYSTICISM and MYSTERY without having a background head canon for Steve's history and what happened. Hints are sprinkled in the story here and there for those curious to look, although I definitely didn't give the characters any clear answers since they're not meant to find them. They won't ever get those clear answers, but I know exactly what happened and what went down.
> 
> Steve's background is a mixture of 616 comics and MCU given that he doesn't actually exist in Noir. He's not from either 616 or MCU but some other universe that exists in the multiverse (although not one by Marvel). Any inconsistencies with "canon" are due to that.
> 
> Again, [here's chibisquirt's awesome art!](https://chibisquirt.tumblr.com/post/174296383407/this-is-my-art-from-the-cap-im-reverse-big-bang) Go check it out and give it some love!


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